Chapter 161: Power of a World

The Akashic Records couldn't directly affect the world itself. What it does is to give out corresponding knowledge to accomplish a certain goal.

Suimei would have acted along the 'solution' given by the Akashic Records, but Nobu stopped him due to his findings.

"The other me must've wanted me to experience the so-called calamities myself… and to create gaps within parallel worlds."

The other Nobu gave him his entire memories. However, even he doesn't know the prerequisites behind Miku's 'great miracle'. He only knew the fact that she would serve as the "denouement" of the battle against the end.

His guesses naturally went to Nobu's head too.

"That's… the most brute force way to achieve things." Suimei commented. "Strange… Even the Akashic Records doesn't have anything for it. Then again, it's natural…"

Nobu surmised it might have something to do with his characteristic as an 'otherworlder'. If Miku was truly the designated 'denouement', his existence has a huge impact on her. That includes his tendency to be 'outside' the scope of this world's calculations.

Crack-!

Hum-!

Outside the clocktower, a massive black crack appeared out of thin air. Translucent figures came out of it. Their bodies switched between translucent and permanence before stabilizing on the latter.

Three horsemen with red, black, and gray horses appeared right outside Suimei's office.

"The gall to appear here…"

Suimei was visibly angered. He nearly prompted the entire magicka defenses present within the clocktower to blow the horsemen to smithereens. Only, he chose not to and left them for Nobu to deal with.

The first few of the calamities aren't actually very challenging to face. It was only until the fifth calamity did things become more difficult.

"Frashokereti…"

It is a world-wide 'calamity' that enhances a person's evil intent to the extreme. It wouldn't be wrong to say that a good person would turn evil due to its existence. It is the first 'difficult' calamity they faced since it wasn't tangible until much later.

By then, damage had already been done and millions of lives were lost.

Nevertheless, the first four calamities were something that could be easily dealt with through direct encounters.

"Suimei, is that crack leading to another parallel world?" Nobu asked for confirmation.

"Yes?"

"Alright. I'll be back in a while."

"You're really…"

Leaping from the tower's window, Nobu flew straight to the place where the three 'apocalypse knights' stood. He swiftly glanced at them and saw their composition.

'Concepts and a special form of energy… it's quite similar to cursed energy.'

Summoning forth Mahoraga's [Sword of Extermination], he used his swordsmanship for the first time in a while. 

His figure turned into a blur before he went through each knight with ease.

A split second later, 'Famine' and 'War' disappeared into black particles of light. Only the strongest 'Death' remained standing, but its entire right arm as well as its mount ceased to exist.

"A knight who doesn't know how to handle swords… you are really the mascots of the end."

Nobu fed the sword with cursed energy, enhancing the 'positive' concept the sword imposed upon its enemies.

In a manner similar to black flash, his cursed energy within the sword peaked.

Crack-!

The simple charging thrust turned into a deadly one. Space itself was pierced by the reaction emitted by the sword. Death's head fell off into the air as it disappeared similar to the prior two knights.

Just then, Nobu felt another crack appearing. His experience with omniscience enhanced his already sharp senses. He gained something akin to [Mind's Eye] that could predict up to two seconds into the future.

Without hesitation, he went straight inside it.

Hum-!

Buzz-!

A distorted noise rang on Nobu's ears. It is similar to when a cassette tape is rewound.

Tick-!

The speed of revolutions done by the eight-pointed wheel on top of his head began to rise. Once more, it adapted to the repercussions of parallel world travel.

'It feels similar… so it's like this.'

Mahoraga's [Adaptation] and his [Quantum Space Control] overlapped when it comes to their effects. The former creates the best 'response' out of a certain outcome, thus becoming immune to certain attacks after a while. On the other hand, the latter 'seeks' for the best response and manifests it.

In this case, the best 'response' for Nobu is to 'nullify' the effects of parallel world resistance. Thus, the wheel worked in that direction.

A few moments later, the darkness was replaced by a cityscape.

The feeling of cursed energy being present all around him made Nobu frown. It was as if he went into hell and not a 'city'.

"The fifth… It's much worse than the one in my memories."

It was at this moment did he notice the incoming 'black hole' straight to his face.

"Space compression..!"

It was a familiar cursed technique.

In a split second, he undid the technique. The 'imaginary mass' that condensed an entire black hole dispersed on the spot. Its reliance on their 'density' (closeness to each other) became their fatal weakness.

Zoom-!

Like a vacuum cleaner, the black hole became small until it completely disappeared.

All of that happened within the span of three seconds. The person who sent out that attack was shocked by what he did.

"You're not…"

Her face changed when she saw Nobu's face.

"You're not in the mood to chat, right?"

"How did you—?"

"It's a long story, Tsukumo-san."

From his current surroundings, he gained another clue as to which parallel world he was into.

"I thought you died in another world… You managed to come back, after all…"

Yuki Tsukumo.

She is one of the four special-grade sorcerers in Japan. Her cursed technique is related to the 'imaginary mass', something that could be used to create black and white holes. However, her specialty lies in her research in the scientific field. She was one of the few sorcerers who focused their abilities to further improve knowledge regarding cursed techniques.

She was one of the few exceptions that wanted to merge both cursed energy and science together. In a sense, her path overlapped with Nobu's.

Hence, she was always present within each iteration he was into.

Unlike with others, she did not have pretenses with Nobu. She already learned the lesson of 'teasing' with someone like him—a person who could always counter her tricks with his own.

"It's not that. I… No, the 'me' of this world had long since died." He replied. "I came from another parallel world. I am another version from a different space."

"...I see."

Her hopes were turned into nothing. She thought 'Nobu' could've pulled off an impossible maneuver and survive, but it was too much of a fantasy.

Boom-!

Their attention was brought into the huge explosion. They saw the tall Tokyo Tower collapse into flames as gas leaks happened throughout the entire tower.

"A collective consciousness is annoying to deal with. But…"

Nobu could 'feel' it. 

When he entered this world, his enemy was about to appear.

Bam-!

His senses did not mislead him. 

On top of the tower, there was a human body burning all over the place. It was a terrifying sight to behold—to see a live human slowly burnt to charcoal—but the man's actions became out of place. It was standing on top of the sharp antenna. 

It looked as if it was watching all the chaos unfold.

"If it affected the entire world…"

A shield was formed on his right arm. It was a circular shield filled with exquisite engravings—a work done by a god.

Using his 'dreamland', he modified the range of this noble phantasm. The concept of 'power' within his dream organs went into the shield, enhancing it to a new height.

Without any hesitation—

Clang-!

—the shield was thrown towards the ground.

BAM-!

Bzzt-!

A translucent film swept across the entire world. The power stored by [Akhilleus Kosmos] aimed to rewrite the world with another world stored inside it. However, its purpose was modified to target a specific being throughout the entire world.

Instead of two worlds clashing, it became a world against its targets.

Pillar of flames rose up from the ground. It could be seen from all over the world. These flames carried an untold amount of cursed energy that caused various cursed spirits to appear more frequently.

Nevertheless, it signified the defeat of the fifth calamity.

"Fu…"

A sense of dizziness assaulted Nobu briefly. While he was not affected by it, that sensation was an indicator of his dream organs being pushed beyond their limits.

These sensations were the reason why Magisters could be considered gods, yet humans at the same time. They could abandon their humanity at any point, yet none are willing to do so—thus resulting in the fusion of god and man.

"It's over. You can be rest assured. There should still be a week or two before the next one comes—"

His words were interrupted by another crack in the sky.

"—it looks like I'm leaving, Tsukumo-san."

The female sorcerer was stunned by his words—caught by him off guard—though she managed to shorten the words she would like to say.

"Good luck."

"That was too irresponsible of me, doesn't it?"

"...Yes. I didn't expect you to run into danger impulsively like that."

"I'm sorry."

Their gazes remained still until a few seconds later.

"Go. This place isn't your destination."

With a nod, Nobu stormed off towards the crack.

*****

The sixth calamity, Ouroboros.

It hid in the depths of another special space. It is similar to the imaginary number space within the other world, but it is a matter of dimensions here.

It was hidden on the fourth Euclidean dimension where space itself was 'distorted'. It was a world of mirrors where your senses could be deceiving you.

Since it was in such an isolated world, I didn't have to find much trouble to fight it. The first thing that I did is to simulate the fifth Euclidean dimension. I changed our surroundings in a way that all fundamental forces are linked to each other. It created an environment that I could easily manipulate to do harm through the said fundamental forces.

The most overwhelming aspect was gravity. The black holes created within the fifth Euclidean dimension are far more terrifying than the ones within the known third Euclidean dimension.

It was something that was only a theory at first, but with my current strength, I was able to pull it off smoothly.

As for the seventh (Beast) and eighth (Last Men), they were dealt with accordingly. The former was brute forced by my current strength while the latter was dealt by another [Akhilleus Kosmos] due to their characteristic of 'tempting humanity' to give up.

Currently, I am in the ninth calamity… or so I thought.

'This is…'

A sea of stars.

That's the first thing I saw right outside the crack. My entire body had already transcended beyond human limits. I didn't need to worry about the radiation brought by space.

However…

'Eleventh…'

The eleventh calamity, Leviathan.

'Insignificance… just like before.'

Its body was 'huge' to the point all I saw within my eyes were pure white. Only when I willed it did I manage to see its entire body—a massive beast beyond star systems.

It was at this moment did I recall someone similar to this.

"Albion…"

Melusine's true form, the strongest dragon since ancient times. Its level was supposed to be akin to those god-kings, yet it refused to leave Earth. Thus, it 'died' due to the predicament the world faced; that is, the decline of the Age of Gods.

Against an entire world's change, it could only be swept by the tides.

It was something all beings faced. Be it gods or humans, they weren't able to have the power of a world. Only Suimei has the capital to do so due to his 'fate' directly tied to the 'world'. He is the only being whom I know that remains unaffected by the restrictions within a world.

My current strength…

At most, I would be able to go out like a dying star. If I couldn't surpass the power of the Abrahamic God, there is no hope going against the world.

Although the Leviathan is huge, it doesn't have the power of a world, either.

Shiing-!

Before I could even act, a ray of light passed through it. It was a direct attack on the concept of 'Leviathan' itself. It was reminiscent of the concept of 'infinity'.

With such a conceptual blow, even immortals will die.

The one who made that blow…

"It has been quite some time."

"...It's as if I traveled back into the past. You were also in this kind of situation back then."

"That was the result of going against the 'end'. It was only now did I understand things. The fate you gave me… it's more than enough to end this thing."

Throughout thousands of years, there are only two figures who remained the most influential prior to Suimei: Lord Nettesheim and Kazamitsu-san.

The former was able to delay the calamities' descent all by himself while the latter was able to annihilate the Leviathan in one strike.

"There's a lot of things you'd understand at this level." Kazamitsu-san said. "You want to know how to get here."

"...Yes."

Kazamitsu-san began to explain everything as precisely as possible.

The first option was to go beyond the 'Infinite Conversion' state. You could briefly enter the state beyond a 'Magister', but you will use your own existence as a fuel for it. 

That was the method he used to end the Leviathan in a single blow. If he hadn't, it would've destroyed the entire physical realm itself. Without it, the spirit realm would cease to exist, thus spelling the end for the world.

As for the second method…

"Philosophorum, Judaicus, Exillis. They represent the wisdom, power, and presence of a transcendent being. The Philosopher's Stone is the sole artifact to reach this level. If you could effectively contain it within your body, it's the same as entering this state."

"...What would happen if the container itself is on the same level as it?"

Kazamitsu-san's eyes looked similar to stars. I could tell it was the same method Suimei was using.

Meaning to say, Suimei must've reached this level as well.

Several questions came to my mind such as him keeping it a secret and not outrightly answering my questions, but I know he must have his own reasons.

"...You should be able to reach the level of a [World] itself."

"Becoming a world..?"

"It's not in the literal sense. If you succeed, you will have the power of an 'entire world'." He explained. "However, you should be prepared to sacrifice something. Magisters could reach that level since they came to a compromise. They retained their humanity but attained inhuman characteristics. If you reach that level, I am afraid something similar will happen."

"...Thank you, Kazamitsu-san."

"It's not a big problem." He replied. "Akasaka… You might… no, you should reach the state you mentioned. The thirteen calamities are still manageable under this state, but the final one…"

Somehow, the memories of the 'vilest demon' in the past emerged into my mind.

"The one that I fought before… it's similar to it… but far stronger. Fighting the embodiment of the end is akin to fighting an entire world itself."

"Going against" the world is different from having the power of an "entire world". The former only allows someone to resist the changes of an entire world. The Abrahamic God should be at this level. He could plan things outside the world's expectations—be it His version in this world or His other version whom I met at the Reverse Side.

If a conscious concept of "end" is present, it is debatable whether that level could still win successfully.

Thus, only by reaching the level of a "world" could things be safeguarded with a guarantee.

"Your existence is beginning to change already. Your future is already a blur. If you keep going further…" Kazamitsu-san paused before continuing, "I will wish you success."

It was at this moment did I become certain of one thing:

My fate is already determined by my current actions.